Abroad with the Jimmies eBook

“Jimmie has talked nothing but salt mines for
a fortnight,” said Bee, finally, “yet
by coming here we have left Salzburg behind us.”

“Let’s go back then,” he said.
“It isn’t far, and it’s all through
a beautiful country.”

For a wonder, we all agreed to this plan without the
usual discussion of individual tastes which usually
follows the most tentative suggestion on the part
of any one of us who has the temerity to leap into
the arena to be worried.

The whole Rhiner family, including the chambermaid,
the shipmaster, and Bee’s friend the cowherd,
were on the little pier, under some pretext or other,
to see us off, and not only feeling but knowing that
we left real friends behind us, we started on our
way to Jenbach, down the same little cog-wheel road
up which we had climbed, and, as Jimmie said:
“literally getting back to earth again,”
for the descent was like being dropped from the clouds.

The journey from Jenbach to Salzburg was indeed marvellously
beautiful, but some little time before we arrived
Jimmie emerged from his guide-book to say, somewhat
timidly:

“Are you tired of lakes?”

“Tired of lakes? How could we be when we’ve
only seen one this week?”

“And that the most exquisite spot we have found
this summer!”

“Certainly we are not tired of the beautiful
things!”

From this avalanche of replies Jimmie gathered an
idea of our attitude.

“Thank you!” he said, politely. “I
think I understand. Would you consent to turn
aside to see the Koenigsee, another small lake which
belongs more to the natives than to the tourists?”

For reply, we simply rose in concert. Mrs. Jimmie
drew on her gloves and Bee pulled down her veil.

“When do we get off, Jimmie?”

“In ten minutes,” he said with a delighted
grin. And in another ten minutes we were off,
and Salzburg was removed another twenty-four hours
from us.

But after the Achensee, the Koenigsee was something
of an anticlimax, although the natives were perfectly
satisfactory, and not an English word was spoken outside
of our party. But as Jimmie speaks German-American,
we got what we wanted in the way of a boat, and found
that the Koenigsee is quite as green as the Achensee
is blue. At least it was the day we were there.
The tiny Tyrolese lad who went with us as guide, told
us that it was sometimes as blue as the sky. But
the black shadows cast upon its waters by the steep
cliffs which rise sheerly from its sides, give back
their darkness to the depths of the lake, and for
the scene of a picturesque murder it would be perfect.
There is a magnificent echo around certain parts of
the Koenigsee, and swans sailing majestically on the
breast of the lake remind one of the Lohengrin country.

We rested that night at a dear little inn and the
next morning took up our interrupted journey to Salzburg.